Need great as Operation Santa starts 100th year

Nov. 27, 2012
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Pete Fontana, who directs the U.S. Postal Service's main post office Operation Santa program in New York City, sorts a single day's delivery of Christmas letters to Santa from the five boroughs. / Todd Plitt, USA TODAY

by Donna Leinwand Leger, USA TODAY

by Donna Leinwand Leger, USA TODAY

Pete Fontana believes in the little miracles, those twists of fate that connect someone who has to someone who needs.

This year, before the holly draped the stone facade of the main post office in New York, Fontana, the chief elf at Operation Santa, already needs 30,000 little miracles.

Operation Santa, now in its 100th year, matches the Dear Santa letters from needy children and families with the anonymous donors willing to adopt the letters and fulfill the holiday wishes. Around the country, 26 post offices field the letters and offer them to the public for adoption.

Fontana and his staff of Santa's helpers are deluged with requests. He worries that Superstorm Sandy's devastation in New York created even more people with needs and whittled away at the people who have resources to help.

"This year is a tough one to predict. There are so many factors -- Sandy, the economy not getting any better," Fontana says. "I'm afraid fewer people will participate because of the havoc the storm created in so many lives."

Last year, the post office in New York received more than 500,000 Dear Santa letters. More than a third of the letters from needy families were adopted, spokeswoman Darleen Reid says. Nationwide, the postal service expects more than a million letters, although not all will be from needy children, she says.

"We get so many,

it's just hard to get them all adopted," Reid says.

For almost as long as it's been in existence, the postal service has received letters to Santa Claus. In 1912, Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock authorized local postmasters to allow postal employees and the public to respond to the letters, officially ushering in Operation Santa.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary, the postal service issued a special Santa stamp and is selling memorabilia, including a holiday ornament and a children's book.

The number of post offices offering letter adoption to the public has dropped from 75 last year as a wave of retirements has made it difficult for some offices to devote people to the labor-intensive program, postal service spokeswoman Sue Brennan says.

"It is still early in the season, and we hope to have more offices participate," Reid says.

The postal elves redact the letter writer's identifying information, leaving only the first names, ages and requests from the children. Each letter is given a number. Benefactors select a letter, return to the post office with the gifts and purchase postage to ship them. Postal elves match the number to the family and deliver the gifts.

In New York, the public can adopt up to 10 letters Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. starting Dec. 5. On Thursdays, the post office stays open until 7 p.m. Businesses can adopt as many as 50 letters if they send a representative to meet with Fontana and train as an "official elf," which entails some paperwork, Fontana says.

More than 300 letters to Santa have arrived at the post office in Washington, D.C., and Postmaster Gerald Roane expects hundreds more. Last year, 80% of the letters got adopted, he says. The public can adopt letters starting Dec. 3.

"In most cases, people try to give them what's on the list and in some cases, they bring them more," Roane says. "We've seen people bring in whole, already trimmed Christmas trees."

Postal elves in Los Angeles expect 30,000 letters, though most won't be from needy children, spokesman Richard Maher says. Last year, donors adopted all the letters from needy families.

"Our goal is to run out of letters," Maher says. "The response from the public is so great."

Many of the letters so far this year have come from mothers who fear they won't have enough money to buy Christmas gifts for their children, Maher says. One mother of five daughters wrote that the previous three Christmases "have been so sad for my girls" because she wasn't able to get them anything.

This year, she said her girls age 8 to 17 need jackets and shoes. "With the holidays coming, it would mean everything to them if they could be dressed nice," she wrote.

The program kicks off in Los Angeles on Dec. 4, when postal elves will celebrate the culmination of an unusual wish made last year by Mya Worthey, the mother of Shimaya, a 7-year-old girl born deaf and with only one ear. Worthey told Santa it broke her heart each time her daughter asked for another ear. "I have tried so many doctors, but have had no luck or my insurance didn't cover it," she told Santa.

Sheryl Lewin, a plastic surgeon who specializes in pediatric facial surgery and ear reconstruction, adopted the letter. Friday, Shimaya will have her final surgery. Lewin is donating her time, and the K and B Surgical Center in Beverly Hills is donating use of its operating room, she says. As a special treat, Lewin will pierce her ears with diamond studs, a gift from an anonymous donor.

"That was pretty darn sweet," Lewin says. "She'll have her earrings before Christmas so she'll have something to celebrate."

This year, Lewin's family will adopt eight families. Her two children, 9 and 10, are allowed to choose two families each.

"They have a hard time. They keep finding more and more kids who they want to help. The kids read each and every letter," Lewin says.

The 27 lawyers and more than 50 support staff at Jack Girardi's law office In Los Angeles have been adopting Santa letters for more than a dozen years. Last year, the office sent gifts for 15 families, including more than 30 children.

"I don't mean to sound dramatic, but it's like the end of A Christmas Carol where it says (Scrooge) learned how to keep Christmas well," Girardi says. "That's how you feel."